Description

The No Logo of climate change -- a book that shows how global warming is not a theory we should still debate, but something that has already happened on a global scale. Climate change is not a concern for the future. It's happening right now. In this book -- based on the latest scientific evidence -- the author takes us around the world to show the impact of global warming already being felt in people's lives. From sand-buried houses in China to thawing Alaskan plains, the author witnesses some of the worst effects of climate change at first hand. Some, like the floods in the UK, are near home. Others -- like the drowning Pacific island of Tuvalu -- are a world away from the exhaust pipes and factory chimneys that are actually causing global warming. But this isn't simply an inventory of disaster, it's a wry look at how people around the globe are coping as their world changes at unprecedented speed. In the process, the author eats whale blubber in Alaska, swims in shark-infested waters off the Great Barrier Reef and struggles to the top of Andean peaks in Peru. An adventure with a conscience and an argument with an urgent purpose, High Tide is an extremely important book.show more

Review quote

'With High Tide, Mark Lynas has given us a tremendous gift: he has time-travelled into our terrifying collective future, a future that has already arrived in the farthest reaches of the globe. Go with him on this breathtaking, beautifully told journey -- to island nations being engulfed by rising tides, to towns swallowed by encroaching desert, to glaciers melting into oceans -- and I promise that you will come back changed, determined to alter the course of history.' Naomi Klein, author of No Logo 'Clear, lucid and informative.' New Statesman 'A thoroughly engaging and well-researched book.' TLS 'If you are among those who think climate change is an uncertain, remote issue over which scientists are unsure, politicians talk endlessly to little effect, and mere individuals have no power at all, this book may be for you ! Lynas tells us to keep repeating the climate change message. Read his book, and that is exactly what you will do.' Guardian 'There will be many more books like High Tide, but this will be remembered as the first ! it'll be the one with the original vision ! Not unworthy of comparison with Orwell and certainly the breaker of new ground.' Independentshow more

Review Text

The sky is falling, and no one seems to be noticing. At least, no one around these parts. According to British journalist Lynas, "a 2001 survey found that only 15% of US citizens correctly identified fossil fuel-burning as the primary cause of global warming-far behind Mexico, with 26% getting the right answer, and just behind Cuba, with 17%." Despite the gainsaying of First World governments and rightist think tanks, global warming is, Lynas argues, an indisputable reality: there is no other good way to explain phenomena such as the disappearance of Oceanic atolls, overwhelmed by rising seas, and the ongoing inundation of the British Isles, swept by flood-inducing rainstorms at levels not seen since the time when weather records were first kept. Is there a smoking gun? Perhaps no readily visible one, Lynas admits, but the circumstantial evidence points strongly to Western industrial lifestyles. Traveling the globe, calling on places such as Aberdeen, Tuvalu, Beijing, and Tallahassee, Lynas gathers opinions, evidence, and sightings, talks with atmospheric scientists and ordinary citizens, and assembles some disturbing arguments: at the end of the present century, he prophesies, the world sea level will have risen by a meter, flooding fertile river deltas and putting millions, and possibly billions, of people at risk. "Although the most valuable real estate in places like Manhattan or Miami is likely to be protected by sea walls for the foreseeable future," he wryly notes, "it will be impossible to enclose all the world's affected areas with concrete." And what is to be done? There are no surprises in Lynas's recommendations: approve and enforce the Kyoto Protocol, stop drilling for oil, reduce the industrial production of greenhouse gases, drive less-and make sure everyone knows that the sky is falling. For all environmental activists/educators-and those new to the ongoing debate about global climate change. (Kirkus Reviews)show more

About Mark Lynas

mark lynas is an activist, journalist and traveller, based in Oxford. He was editor of the website www.oneworld.net, has been involved in protests against GM crops, road-building, Manchester's second runway etc, and as a result has made many appearances in the press and TV as a commentator on environmental issues. He also throws custard pies at lunatics who pronounce global warming a fantasy.show more